BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's report said: "Our probe concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
